I noticed something weird with my car the other day, as I pulled away from my house, I noticed something felt weird, well it appears that my clutch pedal is softer, and now the 'catch' point on my clutch is much closer to the ground. Meaning that when I push the clutch pedal in it travels farther towards the ground before the clutch is engaged, my car is a 95 se with almost 100k miles, i drive it pretty spiritedly most times, and the original owner said something about the clutch pressure plate being replaced not to long before i bought it (about 10k miles ago). In lay terms- It feels as though the clutch pedal has lost pressure. Any ideas on what might have caused this and/or what might be happening? Is my clutch going out?

Much appreciation in advance!

 

It's not your clutch, it's either your slave cylinder or master cylinder on its way out....or a leak somwhere in the clutch lines. I'd get it checked out IMMEDIATELY. If you lose pressure in your clutch system, your car will become immediately undrivable.

 

Thanks for the help, I will check it out right away, keep the ideas coming guys!

appreciate ya bro!

 

no prob

 

Bleed the system you probably let the fluid get to low and now your losing hydrualic pressure, it happened to me too

Bruce

 

What about if you have the opposite thing happening. My system is building to much pressure to where it is not letting the pressure plate to release all the way. When I open up the bleeder valve fluid spurts out relieving the pressure and the clutch works fine.

I have an ACT by the way.

 

Question,
is the Clutch master cylinder reservoir that little unmarked reservoir in the top drivers side corner of the engine compartment? If so mine is completely empty. Do I fill it with DOt 3 brake fluid? And the bleeder valve, is that the one between my intake and my strut?

Thanks

 

Come on guys I need someone to answer these ??? for me. Please!

 

Yes, that is your master cylinder. And yes, fill it to the indicated line with DOT3 Brake fluid. You also may want to get a buddy and have him pump the pedal alot once you get the fluid in there. While he is doing this, check for any leaks on the slave and master cylinder. If you need pictures of where everything is located, check out the Haynes manual at your local autoparts store.

 

Ok here we go first yes that is the cylinder and no you cant just fill it up you have to put enough to fill it up then you go to the bleeder valve which is on the trany, if you look at the trany closest to the engine on the top of the trany there is a cylinder that pushes the relese fork and on that is where the bleeder valve is. This may not seem very clear so ask all the questions you want. I just did this like a month ago so its still fresh in my mind.

Bruce

 

also you have to bleed the system a few times to make sure there is no air in the system if you dont know how to go to your local pepboys or autozone and pick up a haynes manual and it will tell you how to, by the way this is a lot easier with two people.

Bruce

 

I have a haynes manual but it only has one pic of the bleeder valve and its a close-up so theres nothing around it to reference it by. plus they dont decribe where it is. So my only real issue now is, Where is the bleeder valve exactly? Is it down under some stuff? If so what? There is a bleeder valve of some sort that is up high and real easy to get to, between the intake and strut on the drive side, is that not it? Looks a slightly different than the one in the manual.

 

Ok. First go to Motorvate.ca and read the instructions for bleeding your clutch system. TAKE NOTE - there are two places to bleed the clutch system, and you must do it from BOTH places to regain the proper presure.

 

Thanks for all the help guys, you guys are awesome!!! This is what makes the .org the best maxima website on the net!

Much love to everyone that replied

I will do this today sometime, Thanks again.

 

Alright, this is odd. As all of you GA boys know, it got really cold down here this weekend. I went out to my car this morning (after yesterday of driving kind of hard back and forth from ATL) and two bad things happened:

1. The clacking sound of my engine on cold startup (from the oil draining back thru the anti-drainback valve in the oil filter, I'm guessing) was worse than normal. It lasted about 5 seconds instead of one. BTW, buying a Nissan oil filter has not seemed to help this. Also, the rattling in my engine (maybe from the timing chain) lasted longer (until full warmup).

2. In addition to all this, my clutch did the exact same thing as discussed in this post.

Is this cold weather related? Why is my car falling apart all it once? Is this clutch thing hard to fix? I'm planning on working on it today. Is this a one day/one hour/one week job?

Thanks guys. The posts from above have already been helpful.

95 SE Emarald Black 5sp Stock